Ethan, a young child, explains what learning means to him through examples: spelling "cat," walking with help from his parents, building and drawing, and Spanish from a class. He describes learning as something that comes from being taught, trying things himself, or formal instruction.
How are you doing?
Hello. Hey.
Hey. Well? Good. So, you are in red today. You like the color red?
Yeah, I like it a lot.
All right. So, I was thinking about learning. Do you know what learning is?
Yeah.
So what, how would you explain learning? What does it mean to learn something?
Um, you know more, you know that thing.
Okay, you know more, you know that thing. Can you give me any examples of something, anything that you've learned?
Um, I learned how to spell.
You learned how to spell. Excellent, excellent. What kinds of things did you learn how to spell?
Um, cat.
How do you spell cat? How do you spell cat?
C. A.
A. And then T. C-A-T. So how did you learn how to spell?
Um, I got taught.
You got taught to spell?
Okay.
So how did you learn to speak? You and I are talking right now, right?
Right.
So how did you learn how to speak?
Uh, good question. Well, I really forgot because that was a long time ago.
Okay, fair enough. But do you think babies know how to speak?
No, no, at all. Okay.
Okay, so how about walking? Do you know how you learned how to walk?
Um, so at first I couldn't move, then I changed to crawling. And then it helped me learn to walk.
Got it. Did somebody have to teach you how to walk or did you figure it out on your own?
Um, I used to, I used to like walk from my mom to my dad. That's how I learned how to walk long distances.
I see, I see. But did somebody tell you how to do it?
Yeah, my mom and dad teach me how to walk.
Okay, um, how about, let's see, you know how to build things, right?
Yeah.
So how did you learn how to build things?
Uh, I just decided to build things.
So you just decided to?
No, I didn't really. I started building like not very cool objects and then I changed to building cool objects.
Got it. How about drawing? How did you learn how to draw?
Uh, I don't really draw too much, but—
Well, I remember that when you build things, you draw a picture of what you build first, right?
You used to skate? Yeah, but I wouldn't do very much building because it's very cold outside. I mean, not cold, but today I'm kind of cold.
Totally get it. So it's too cold to build right now, but you do know how to— you do know how to draw, right?
Right?
You know how to draw a little bit anyway, huh?
I know how to draw structures, my stuff, the stuff I'm going to build, but I don't know how, I mean, I know how to draw lots of stuff, but not too much stuff.
Okay. Did somebody teach you how to draw or did you learn it on your own or a little bit of both?
A little bit of both.
Okay. Do you know any words? You know what foreign languages are, right? You know, like Spanish is a different language and German is a different language. You know about that?
I know Spanish and English.
You know a little bit of Spanish?
Yeah, and I know a lot of Spanish, a little bit of Spanish. I used to know a lot, and I know a little bit, um, um, I know one French song.
Excellent. Puedo hablar conmigo en español? Puede hablar conmigo en español?
I haven't learned those words, but I have learned like, hola and stuff.
Hola, ¿qué tal? So how did you learn Spanish? How did you learn some Spanish words?
No, I took a class.
Did you take a class in person or online?
In person.
Okay, so sometimes you learn things because you take a class, sometimes you figure them out on your own, sometimes somebody teaches you things. Are there any other ways you learn stuff?
No.
Okay. Do you like to learn things?
Uh, yeah, I guess so. I mean, I do like learning about the Army. That's what I love learning about.
You love learning about what?
The Army.
The Army? I don't know what—
Omi.
Omi? I'm trying to figure it out.
Forget it.
Okay, forget it? Okay. So you love learning about something, including the Omi. Do you think that you will learn more things in next year?
Uh, more things now in the winter.
Okay. Well, I think learning is an interesting thing. And I like to know how people learn. Do you think learning is interesting?
Yeah, it is kind of. Okay.
Oh, what are you gonna do today? What are you gonna do today?
Hang out, play a little.
All right. Well, in which case, it's been great talking. I'm gonna let you go hang out and play a little, okay?
Got it.
Okay, bye-bye, Ethan. Take care.
